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Top 10 Memorable Moments of 2012 : Part I

It’s time.

Time to start wrapping up the season.

Before we close the books on 2012, let’s take a look back at the moments that made the season so great. And really, wasn’t it a great season? I think it was one of my favorites.

Not all of these are big-ticket moments. Not all of them will leave a lasting impression on the history of the game. But when I think back on 2012, these are the moments I’ll remember the most:

10. Let’s start things off on a lighter note. The Dolphins had their fair share of unfortunate moments over the course of the season, but perhaps the most unfortunate was when the sprinklers went off in the middle of the third quarter of the Seahawks at Dolphins game. Really, this clip never gets old. It’s like something out of a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial.

9. And one more…just because it’s too good. It’s one thing for the players to let the team down on the field. It’s another for the fans to let the players down in the stands…literally. Come on, Buffalo! The least you can do is catch your man in the stands.

8. Every season, there are a handful of wild, unexpected wins that just make you feel good. My favorite of the year had to be when the Colts came roaring back to beat the Packers in Week 5. I never thought I’d say that one of my favorite moments of the year was a Packers loss, but watching the tenacity of a team inspired by the overwhelming desire to win for their absent head coach…it was really something special. Second favorite? The Charlie Batch win. A comeback victory after a terrible loss the week prior for one of the league’s best backups in what may have been his last game. Wow. It’s why we love football.

7. Another one of those special moments – Torrey Smith’s huge game just hours after finding out that his brother had died in a tragic motorcycle accident. The video linked above, from ESPN’s piece on Torrey Smith during their Super Bowl pregame programming, will change your day for the better. What a story.

6. Hey Diddle Diddle Ray Rice Up The Middle. On a 4th and 29, Ray Rice busted up the Chargers defense and ran right up the gut to eventually win the game and keep the Ravens playoff hopes alive. Aside from the inhuman feat of converting on a 4th and 29, this was the moment for the Ravens. From this point on, they set the tone for an unexpected, unbelievable Super Bowl run.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow!

True and False : the 2012 Season

Well, this was fun.

Sports predictions find their home in hyperbole. There is a never-ending abundance of big assumptions and even bigger surprises. So I thought it would be interesting to go back to all of the regular season pre- and post-game posts to see what we thought would happen…and what actually happened.

And behold: True and False: the 2012 Season!

TRUE

Week 1: RG3 really is that good – It wasn’t just the fact that the Redskins won against a tough opponent in a volatile environment (Saints at home) and it wasn’t just his performance stats. It was the maturity and intuition with which he played. He made smart decision after smart decision after smart decision – completely uncharacteristic for a rookie quarterback in his first NFL game.

Week 3: This was basically prophetic, since the Fail Mary was the game that followed – Storyline to Know: I think it’s still the replacement refs. Their performance quality seems to be getting worse rather than better

Week 4: Rest of the season projections, all stunningly true – The NFC East is always exciting, but I think it will be a dog fight for 1st in this Division this year. // The Vikings…are 3-1?! This has to be the biggest surprise of the season so far…and not just in the NFC North. The Vikings have a solid running game led by RB Adrian Peterson and QB Christian Ponder has been good. // But the three (in the AFC East) are squarely tied at 2-2 with Miami pulling up the rear at 1-3. In my opinion, though, that won’t be the case for long. The Jets are beat up and confused and the Bills are…the Bills. Welcome to the playoffs, New England.

Week 8: True, and one of my favorite stories of the season – The Colts are looking like the comeback kids. They won another game in OT this week (against the Titans) and since the AFC is particularly awful this year, they have a legitimate shot at being a real playoff contender.

Week 9: The story of the season for Dallas – It goes against everything I know about the NFL to watch a team be poised to win at some point in the game every week…and then lose, every week. Dallas fans, I’m sorry. This must be brutal for you.

Week 10: It never really got better for the Giants – The Giants, who never look great in November but always retain a glimmer of Super Bowl hope throughout, looked particularly ungreat in a 31-13 loss to the Bengals.

Week 12: Who just started at QB in the Super Bowl? This guy – Storyline to Know: The no-one-saw-it-coming quarterback controversy between Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick. After the backup’s phenomenal performance on Monday night against the Bears, head coach Jim Harbaugh said he’d “go with the quarterback with the hot hand,” even though starting QB Alex Smith has led the team to a 7-2-1 record. Smith has been maligned for most of his career after getting off to a lackluster start for a first-pick of the draft but has really found his stride with Harbaugh. You can’t help but think that this might be a confidence shaker for Smith, but we’ll see how things go on Sunday against the also hot-handed Drew Brees and the Saints. *This just in: Kaepernick is starting on Sunday…wow.

Week 13: When this – At the beginning of the season, Arizona had a quarterback controversy but is currently experiencing quarterback scarcity. At the beginning of the season, New York had a brewing quarterback controversy but is currently experiencing Armageddon. I’m actually looking forward to seeing which way this one goes. Turned into this – Eastern New York was subjected to the Jets/Cardinals game, easily the most mind-boggling display of offensive football I’ve ever witnessed. And it wasn’t just me. Both announcers did all they could to keep from laughing out loud. And then…Thom Brennaman couldn’t hold it in any longer. And he quotes: “I got to tell you, this has been as ugly and inept an offensive football game as I’ve ever seen.” Amen, Thom. Amen.

Week 14: Really true for the Cardinals, and 50/50 for the rest – Biggest Losers: The Cardinals. Literally, since they lost 58-0…and no other team got shut out or lost by a 58 point deficit last week…because that’s just ridiculous. Remember when the Cardinals were 4-0 and on top of the world? What happened, AZ?! But as far as the playoff picture goes, the Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, and Bears all had losses that could come back to haunt them in a few weeks.

Week 17: A tale of 9 yards away – Adrian Peterson has a legitimate chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. He needs to rush for 208 yards in the Vikings game against the Packers, and the last time the teams met he ran for 210.

FALSE

Week 2: How did I believe this?! I lived in Rochester; I KNOW the Bills! – The Bills aren’t that bad. They had a nice win over the Chiefs on Sunday, who, unfortunately,are that bad.

Week 5: …And then, there was the 42-24 Packers victory – The Packers looked bad, and things are about to get worse. They […] have the task of playing the undefeated Houston Texans on Sunday night in Texas. It promises to be a long night for me and my #12 jersey.

Week 6: As we all know, the “rest of the year” only pertained to the rest of the calendar year – Sad news for Ray Lewis and the Ravens, he’s out for the rest of the year with a torn tricep.

Week 7: Surprisingly good soon turned into surprisingly bad (mostly for AZ) – The face-off of the two surprisingly good teams: the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals. Both teams are 4-2, and neither were expected to be anywhere near that number at the beginning of the season.

Week 11: This turned into more of a sinking situation as the season progressed – Philly fans were clamoring for Nick Foles to start anyway, but he’ll be starting for sure on Sunday due to Michael Vick’s concussion. Time to sink or shine!

Week 15: Behold: Your Super Bowl Champion…Ravens! – Nine: As in Nine-and-five, the records of two AFC teams heading in opposite directions: the Ravens and the Colts. The Ravens are in the playoffs, but don’t look like a playoff team. The Colts need another win to make it into the playoffs, but their future looks blindingly bright.

Week 16: 13-42, Seahawks, anyone? – Game of the Week: I’m loving Niners at Seahawks on Monday night. In the past three weeks Seattle has scored more than 50 points in each game…50 points!…and their offense is viewed as weaker than their defense. Seattle is also near-impossible to beat at home. However, the Niners are coming off of a win at Foxborough against the Patriots who haven’t lost a game at home in December in a decade. So they’re not all that intimidated by home field advantage.

What were you guys surprised/not surprised by this season? Anything that didn’t make the list?

What to Know : After the Super Bowl

If we were hoping for a great game to end the 2012 season, we certainly got it.

To me, there are four defining moments that stick out from the game:

1. The Very First Play

Let’s set the stage for this conversation by noting that teams script their first 15 or so plays for every game in advance so that they go into the game with a plan of attack. Thanks to the two week layover between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl, teams have an especially long amount of time in which to prepare. That first play for the Niners? It had to have been installed at least 10 days ago, and rehearsed a hundred times physically and mentally since then.

The play design was successful: a 20 yard gain by tight end Vernon Davis. The execution? Not so much. And not even because of a hold or a fumble or something that happened in the physical act of playing the down. It was an illegal formation (the tight end was covered up by the wide receiver (which means he was deemed illegible because they both lined up on the line of scrimmage on the same side of the field)) – a mental error. To have a mistake like that occur on a play that has been installed for well over a week – the first play of the game! – that would have resulted in a 20 yard gain for the offense was bad news for the Niners. They seemed unsettled from the get-go, and that first play only reinforced the sentiment.

2. The Blackout

I maintain that it was Jim Harbaugh’s intensity that blew a few thousand fuses and resulted in the second stadium blackout of his career. Be that as it may, the blackout seemed to swing the momentum from the Ravens to the Niners, who were all but momentum-less up to that point. But despite the fact that the Niners scored 17 unanswered points following the blackout, I thought the fact that they had 35 minutes to come up with a winning play call on 3rd and long and yet still didn’t convert was telling.

3. The Non-Call

Ok, this is the tipping point for SB47 controversy. During the Niners final drive in the red zone Kaepernick threw a fade to wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith defended the route and there was mutual contact between Crabtree and Smith in what could have been called either holding or pass interference (you can watch the whole play and judge for yourselves here). But there were no flags on the play.

Forgive me, 49ers fans…I think it was a good non-call. For several reasons: 1. It was consistent with how the rest of the game was called. There was a LOT of physicality allowed and personally, I thought it was great. It’s the Super Bowl. The players should be allowed to play all-out for the win. 2. It wasn’t a catchable pass. Contact or no contact, that ball wouldn’t have been caught in-bounds. You can’t reward a bad play with a bad call – especially when it has the potential to decide the winner of the Super Bowl. 3. That there was contact between the two was undeniable, but isn’t contact legal in the first 5 yards? That would take care of the interference call, and to go back to the first point, the refs hadn’t called holding all night. It wouldn’t have been right to call it there, on a questionable play, and not call it in the other situations all night.

This will be rehashed relentlessly for the next weeks/months because we’re pathetic and have nothing else to talk about now that the season’s over, but I don’t think there’s any need. It was a good call.

4. The Safety

The David Tyree catch in Super Bowl 42 was probably the most dramatic ending to a Super Bowl that I remember seeing. But the Ravens intentionally giving away the safety to run out the clock and effectively win the game with only 4 seconds remaining? That has to be the weirdest, most genius end to any Super Bowl I’ve watched in my lifetime. It kind of summed up the Ravens season: it was never pretty, and it was never what you would have expected, but they always got the job done.

Well done, Ravens.

A few of my favorite takeaways from Super Bowl 47:

The beautifully commissioned chalk work showcased on the ESPN promos, the great history of New Orleans Super Bowls, the bursting-with-potential Sam Gordon, the feature CBS did with Chuck Pagano’s daughters, the HarBowl, O.J. Brigance, the blackout, this NFL fan commercial, the safety, Ray Lewis, Joe Flacco, Torrey Smith. And when I want to go back and remember the game later on when those memories start to fade, I’ll reread these articles from Peter King and Mike Tanier – both worth a read right now if you haven’t seen them yet.

What did you all think? Which plays and moments stood out to you?

News and Notes: the NFL Honors

(In keeping with tradition, we’ll save the What to Know After post for Tuesday. We’ll recap the game and cry bittersweet tears for the final showdown of the season. Today, instead of a What Just Happened post, we’re going to talk about another thing that happened this weekend – the NFL Honors show.)

In only it’s second year, the NFL Honors show has already become a staple, and an apt lead-in to Super Bowl Sunday. What better way to wrap up the season and create anticipation for the big day up ahead? It’d be nice if sports writers could stop being sports writers for a day and not leak the results early and have them running along the bottom line on ESPN and NFL Network so that everyone knows what happens before it happens (sports writers for the Olympics: I’m looking at you, too). But even so, it’s such a great show and I’m really hoping it becomes a yearly tradition for a long time to come.

I’ll probably only rewatch it 87 times while mourning the end of the season this week.

Here are the results from the AP voted categories:

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins

If you take your team from a 3-6 start and end up in the playoffs, playing on one leg, in your first year in the NFL, you’ve more than earned Rookie of the Year honors. I’m not surprised that RG3 won, but I am a little surprised that it wasn’t closer. He received 29 of the 50 votes! Andrew Luck was a distant second with 11 votes, and Russell Wilson a surprisingly close third with 10 votes. It was a well-deserved win for Griffin, who also had one of the winning lines from the show: “It’s truly a blessing to be up here…and to be able to stand, first and foremost.” Great to see him up on two feet again.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers

I have to admit: I didn’t know much about Luke Kuechly before he won this award! I don’t follow the Panthers all that closely and I thought the Seahawks’ Bobby Wagner would win, but congratulations all the same to Luke! It’s great to see the Panthers bringing in new talent.

Offensive Player of the Year: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

Ultimately AP earned 30.5 of the 50 votes and Peyton received 19.5, and I think that’s how it should have been. Peyton had a remarkable year, but if the definition of Offensive Player of the Year is the player who contributed the most to the offensive production, the award had to go to Peterson.

Defensive Player of the Year: J.J. Watt, Houston Texans

Complete no-brainer on this one: Watt received 49 out of the 50 total votes (with one person voting for Von Miller, who would have been a great candidate had J.J. not had the season of a lifetime). Watt was beyond dominant on the defense, and so integral to his teams success that he would have been a viable MVP candidate if not for Peyton and AP.

Comeback Player of the Year: Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos

I think Peyton is the classiest guy in the NFL. His acceptance speech is well worth watching, and the award was so well deserved. The Broncos didn’t get as far along as they could have this year, but he’s made such a remarkable comeback that he’s put the Broncos in position to make a playoff run every year for the foreseeable future. It’s just good for football to have Peyton back again. I hope we get to keep watching him play for a long, long time.

Coach of the Year: Bruce Arians, Indianapolis Colts (Interim)

Peyton’s speech was awesome, but the speech of the night goes to BA, hands down. He was eloquent, humble, and a great reflection of everything a leader should be. It’s no wonder he had no problem taking over as interim head coach for Chuck Pagano, leading the young Colts to a 9-3 record along the way.

Most Valuable Player: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

Last season, the Vikings were a 3-13 team. This year, they went 10-6 and made it into the first round of the playoffs. Now, this was far from an individual accomplishment – that would be taking too much away from the coaches and the rest of the team. But there’s no way the Vikings would have had the season that they had if not for Adrian Peterson. It wasn’t just that he was the entire offense (really…he was); it was that his comeback, just months removed from tearing both his ACL and MCL, was so unbelievable that it lifted the entire organization. It seemed like if he could come back like THAT, then everyone else could do their jobs to the best of their ability, too.

Non-AP Awards and Moments Worth Noting:

Never Say Never Moment of the Year: Torrey Smith, Baltimore Ravens

I can’t imagine anyone else winning this award. Torrey Smith had one of the best games of his career just hours after losing his younger brother in a fatal motorcycle accident. Since he was preparing to play in the Super Bowl the next day, his mother accepted the award on his behalf. And what strength she displayed! The power of resilience was so evident in her speech.

Walter Payton Man of the Year: Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys

Jason Witten, aside from his many other charitable initiatives, also started a foundation that installs strong male mentors into women’s shelters so that families who have had to flee from abusive men can still have a solid male role model in their lives. His own life was positively effected by the presence of his grandfather after his mother moved he and his siblings away from their abusive father. He’s a true success story for mentorship and so deserving of this honor.

And…the Thaw of the Frozen Tundra…the Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers Reunion

We could be seeing a new era in Green Bay. One in which former quarterback star Brett Favre, who has not endeared himself to Green Bay since his departure, may be starting to head in the direction of reconciliation. This staged moment between Favre and Rodgers was not nearly as much of a train wreck as it could have been, and I really think it’s a signal of good things to come between the Pack and #4.

On a final note, I think Alec Baldwin should be installed as the permanent host of the NFL Honors. He was even better this year than last year.

Did you guys watch the NFL Honors? Thoughts on the winners – did you agree or disagree?

Super Sunday Study Session

If you’ve spent all of your time menu planning and party coordinating and have an impending sense of doom about the actual game part of game day, DON’T PANIC. It’s not too late! Here’s your last minute study session for Super Bowl Sunday:

If you have some free time this morning, read through these three posts and take the quiz at the end:

The Basics of Offense

The Basics of Defense

The Basics of Special Teams

Test Your Knowledge

Test Answers

If you’re too busy basting meatballs for subs and grating cheese for nachos, not to worry. I’ve got you covered! Here are the essential 10 Thing to Know When Watching a Football Game:

1. There are three components to every team: offense, defense, and special teams. The offense is the unit trying to move the ball down the field to score a touchdown in the defense’s end zone. The defense is the unit trying to stop the offense from scoring. Special teams is the unit on the field during kicking and punting plays.

2. A team has four chances, called downs, to move the ball 10 yards. You’ve probably heard the terms “1st and 10” and “3 and out” – they’re referring to the down system. If a team has a “1st and 10” it means they are on their first down (first chance) and still have to move the ball 10 yards from the line of scrimmage (the imaginary starting line) to get a new set of downs. If a team is at “2nd and 7” it means that it’s their second down and they have to move the ball 7 yards to get a new set of downs. The first number refers to the down (chance), the second is the number of yards to go until they reach 10 total yards and a new set of downs. You’ll know how much farther a team has to go to get to the first down marker thanks to the magic of television: it’s the electronic yellow line superimposed on the field.

3. If the offense doesn’t reach 10 total yards in 4 downs, they turn the ball over to the other team, right where they are. This isn’t good, especially if turning the ball over to the other team would put them in good field position to score. This is why a team will usually choose to use their first 3 downs to move the ball 10 yards and their final down to punt the ball away or kick a field goal, if they’re close enough.

4. The goal of the offense is to score in the following ways: Touchdown = 6 points. Extra Point (or PAT, Point After Touchdown) = 1 point. Field Goal = 3 points. 2-point conversion (when a team lines up at the 2 yard line and tries to get the ball in the endzone after a touchdown instead of kicking the extra point) = 2 points.

5. The goal of the defense is also to score: Safety (when the ball carrier is tackled in the offense’s end zone) = 2 points. Pick 6 (when a defensive player intercepts the ball and runs it into the end zone for a touchdown) = 6 points (and they will also kick the extra point afterward, making for a total of 7 points). Aside from scoring, the defense wants to force a “3 and out” – making the offense have to punt on 4th down, therefore going 3 downs without moving 10 yards and having to go “out” by punting.

6. The game is played in quarters, and each quarter is 15 minutes long. Those quarters are separated by halves – the first half and the second half – and those halves are separated by halftime, which is usually a 12-minute break but during the Super Bowl is elongated to just short of forever (or 30 minutes).

7. Each team gets three timeouts per half. There’s also a break at the 2-minute warning (when there are 2 minutes remaining) of each half. The game clock is the clock that keeps the total time remaining in each quarter; the play clock is the clock that keeps the total time remaining for each play. The offense has 40 seconds from the end of a play to start the next play – that’s what the play clock accounts for. If they don’t get the ball snapped in time, they’ll receive a 5-yard delay of game penalty.

8. The fifty yards of field from the offense’s end zone = their “own” side of the field. The fifty yards of field from the defense’s end zone = the defense’s “territory.” But the physical halves of the field for each team do not stay constant – teams rotate ends of the field after each quarter to make for fair playing conditions (especially in outdoor stadiums to account for sun, wind, etc).

9. Play continues after the 1st and 3rd quarters; play stops after the 2nd and 4th quarters. After the 1st and 3rd quarters the teams rotate ends of the field and play continues right where it left off. If the team on offense was at their own 40 yard line at 2nd and 7, they’ll still be on their own 40 yard line at 2nd and 7 once the next quarter begins, just on the opposite end of the field. But the same is not true after the 2nd and 4th quarters. After the 2nd quarter, play stops for halftime. When play resumes again it will be the beginning of the 3rd quarter and the team that did not kick off to start the game will kick off to start the new half, starting a new possession. And unless there’s a tie when the 4th quarter ends, the game is over.

10. Teams play in many, MANY different formations (alignment and combination of players). But in general, you can use these diagrams as a guide to know who is on the field for offense and defense:

Players on Offense:

Offensive Line: LT – left tackle, LG – left guard, C – center, RG – right guard, RT – right tackle

QB – quarterback

Offensive Personnel: RB – running back, TE – tight end, WR – wide receiver

Players on Defense:

Defensive Line: DE – defensive end, DT – defensive tackle

Defensive Front: Defensive line + LB’s – linebacker

Defensive Backs (The Secondary): CB – cornerback, FS – free safety, SS – strong safety

Ok! You’re so ready!!! Now go finish those subs and enjoy Super Bowl Sunday!

What to Know : Super Bowl 47

People, this is our final What to Know post of the season. Super Bowl Weekend has almost arrived, and with the joy comes the sorrow: this is the end of football for the next 6 months. (This blog, however, will remain active throughout the entire off-season. More details on that next week!)

However, there is a time to mourn, and a time to dance. And this weekend? We be dancin’, Mardi Gras style in New Orleans. Because it’s the BEST weekend of the whole year!!!

Here’s what you need to know about Super Bowl 47:

What to Know from History: These two teams have met before, and fairly recently: the first Harbowl was played two Thanksgivings ago, a 2011 game that the Ravens won. While there are plenty of lessons that can be learned from that game in anticipation of Sunday (a fairly sturdy one: expect more defense than offense), both teams are markedly different than when they met a year and a half ago. The Ravens have a new offensive coordinator (Jim Caldwell); the 49ers, a new offensive leader (Colin Kaepernick).

One piece of history that can’t be overlooked is the 49ers Super Bowl record: 5 wins, 0 losses. That’s a pretty impressive streak. The Ravens don’t have an L in their Super Bowl column, either. But they do have 4 less W’s. So, there’s that. But still, winning one Super Bowl > losing one Super Bowl > not even making it to the Super Bowl.

Another piece of history to note: a No. 2 Seed has double the chance of winning than a No.4 Seed does. Since 1975, eight No. 2 Seeds have gone on to win the Super Bowl – four No. 4 Seeds have won.

The Niners were the 2 Seed this year.

What to Know on Sunday: Colin Kaepernick will be making his 10th career start on Sunday. That’s insane. He doesn’t seem to scare easy (even though he seemed more than a little out of sync in the first half of the NFC Championship game) and he’s far from flying blind. Head coach Jim Harbaugh said this week that former starting QB Alex Smith, who was benched in favor of Kaepernick while playing the best football of his career, has been coaching Colin more than he has as a head coach.

That’s the epitome of character.

So Kaepernick doesn’t appear to be coming apart at the seams. The Ravens, on the other hand, might be fraying a bit. The Ray Lewis Deer Antler Scandal is one of the most mind boggling attempts at controversy in recent memory, but it’s a distraction nonetheless. (And just as an aside – is 2013 going to be the year of ridiculous animal-based sports stories? Catfishing? Deer Antler Spray? WHAT?) That might have been a passing storm, but Ed Reed’s comments yesterday about wanting to play for rival coach Bill Belichick might be the rumbles of an oncoming earthquake. It’s not that the Ravens are hopelessly derailed and doomed for failure. Not at all. But what’s preferable: trying not to be distracted by controversies, or not having any controversies to be distracted by in the first place?

But those are off the field issues fueled by the irrational level of hype surrounding Super Bowl Week. On the field? At this point in the season it’s pointless to talk about injuries: everyone is playing hurt. Justin Smith doesn’t seem to have been terribly hindered by the triceps that is only half as attached to the rest of his body as it used to be; ditto: Ray Lewis.

There are compelling arguments for how the teams match up and which players need to play best for each team to gain an advantage. I agree with Ben Muth’s thoughts about Michael Oher – he needs to have a great game for the Ravens running game to be successful. I also agree that for the Niners to win, their DB’s need to execute their complex schemes effectively to make it harder for Joe Flacco to throw and complete his signature deep bombs. If it comes down to a kick? Advantage: Ravens. David Aker’s 2012 success rate: 69%. Ravens rookie Justin Tucker: 91%.

I love reading about how teams match up against each other, but it usually comes down to this: the team that comes in most prepared and executes to the best of their ability wins the game. No matter how the teams match up on paper.

Who are you guys rooting for? I’ll be cheering on the Ravens, but I know that plenty of San Fran lovin’ friends who will be overjoyed if the Niners come out on top, so that would be fun too.

No matter who we want to win, I think we can all agree that Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, parents of Jim and John, are just about the best thing to happen to Super Bowl Week since…Super Bowl Week. They’ve been a light in a dark tunnel of media craziness. This transcript of their media day interview is absolutely worth a read, but at the very least, be sure to watch this video.

Ok, guys! I think that about covers it. I hope you feel ready to go! Enjoy Super Bowl Weekend!!!